The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-02-23

ly income, and it is. Forty odd thou
sand dollars is what we pay yearly.
Now, ho,o are are our farmers rep
resented in their own depart
ment Of Agriculture? From his
Excellency, the Governor, all the
way down to the dude city
negro, who gets his Thirty dollars
per month, including men of all
the so-called learned professions with
all the literary titles attached to
them, such as A. B., A NJ. M. d.,
d. d., L. L. D., and these men are
College Presidents, Lawyers, Print
ers, Artists, &c. Now, these are the
farmers representatives. in their De-
partment of Agriculture, processing
to teach them practical agriculture
Don't it suggest the idea Of selling
doves in the Temple at Jerusalem
nineteen centuries ago? For antique
curiosities our department rivals
the Boolak museum Of Cairo. AS
now constituted, it is perfect men,
agery Of the genus homo, and if a
single one of them ever plowed a
day in his life, | don't believe it.
AS far as a knowledge Of practical
agriculture, the whole posse COM
mitatus know about as much
of it as negro Of Ujiji, in
Central Africa, does of the Christian
religion.
This presents a true illustration
of the way farmers are represented
in everything where this sovereign
right has been delegated 50 long,
by custom, to unfaithful representa-
tives.
The question arises now, after
endurance has ceased to be virtue,
how shall we remedy our grievances
Our only hope is in that Archime-
dean lever, that powerful force which
moves the world itself, cooperation.
In the recent steps taken by the
farmers of North Carolina on the
Goth, in Mass Convention, may be
seen movement in the right direc-
ton. The good, candid and honest
men, irrespective of profession, have
applauded the farmers for their
noble effort to render themselves
worthy Of success, and many, too
wish us God-speed in our under
taking. From these we expect
nothing but encouragement. We
thank them cordially. But from
croakers of ill-omen to every
enterprise, not promotive Of their
individual welfare,-from dema1
gogues who professed to see nothing
in the Farmers Convention but the
States Genera! of France in 1789-we
want nothing but fair play and
their continued opposition. AS to
those men in our present Legislature,
who have imagined that the only
opposition and dissatisfaction of
the farmers of the State to the
Agricultural Department is in the
extravaganza of tho same, and
more especially the gentleman in
the Senate branch who feeling sure
this was the fact did declare
to his colleagues in open
debate, "FEr the expenditures, and
you OiW shat the mouths Of the
farmers" we would simply remind
him that nineteen-t,oentieths Of his
constituents are farmers, and that
representation precedes taxation. He
may have forgotten that is princi-
pie as old as our government, and
that it took Z years Of war to estab-
lish it as such. 1t came to stay.
The farmers have, Enthusiastically,
declared their wishes to the legis-
lature. They may heed them if
they will or disregard them if they
desire, but the fat has gone forth
that, touching their professional
interests, the farmers of North Car
olina are masters of the present sit
uation.
IF their Convention meant any
thing, it was the Inauguration of a
new departure. It was declara-
fiUn that farmers had some rights as
we'll as other people, that whether
exercised by themselves or delegat-
ed, they would have just such leg
islation as will benefit them, and
they would be their own judges.
If such was not their decision, then,
in the language of Cleveland, it was
certainly "pernicious actirity'' in that
direction.
n NM H~H -